Informational Lights from Service Science for the progression of Society
Informational Lights from Service Science for the progression of Society
Informational Lights from Service Science
for the progression of Society
Michel Léonard
T
hat the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, the spirit of reason, science, humanism and progress, as opposed to obscurantism, has led to the emergence of scientific, disruptive knowledge, even regarding the foundations of Society, is indisputable to anyone using their reason. Thus, were brought about great transformations of Society, which took place.In our time, digital technologies, through enabling observations of otherwise invisible phenomena, induce also a multitude of disruptive practices. As this effect and its inevitable implications continue to accelerate into the future, their integration into the progression of Society and enterprise is now absolutely imperative.
The intention of this book is to bring out the intelligence of the progression of Society or of enterprise by enabling the intelligence of living together (Human Sciences), the intelligence of solutions (Natural Sciences) and the intelligence of the artificial (Sciences of Engineering, including the Digital), to connect together through the informational intelligence of services. Such a connection is established thanks to Service Science. It forms the base for the Informational Lights.
Michel Léonard is a professor at the University of Geneva since 1977 in Information Systems and Service Science. He has been the initiator of numerous courses and curricula including the Franco-Swiss European DEA MATIS, and of the IESS (International Conference on Exploring Service Science) series of international scientific conferences. His research has focused on the one hand on methods for the design and evolution of information systems, and on the other hand on the creation of database management systems in accordance with these methods.
They now focus on Service Science by adding the informational dimension.
Michel Léonard
978-2-7598-2467-0
Michel Léonard
Informational Lights from Service Science for the progression of Society
Informational Lights from Service Science for the progression of Society
www.edpsciences.org
Informational Lights from Service Science
for the progression of Society
Michel Léonard
T
hat the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, the spirit of reason, science, humanism and progress, as opposed to obscurantism, has led to the emergence of scientific, disruptive knowledge, even regarding the foundations of Society, is indisputable to anyone using their reason. Thus, were brought about great transformations of Society, which took place.In our time, digital technologies, through enabling observations of otherwise invisible phenomena, induce also a multitude of disruptive practices. As this effect and its inevitable implications continue to accelerate into the future, their integration into the progression of Society and enterprise is now absolutely imperative.
The intention of this book is to bring out the intelligence of the progression of Society or of enterprise by enabling the intelligence of living together (Human Sciences), the intelligence of solutions (Natural Sciences) and the intelligence of the artificial (Sciences of Engineering, including the Digital), to connect together through the informational intelligence of services. Such a connection is established thanks to Service Science. It forms the base for the Informational Lights.
Michel Léonard is a professor at the University of Geneva since 1977 in Information Systems and Service Science. He has been the initiator of numerous courses and curricula including the Franco-Swiss European DEA MATIS, and of the IESS (International Conference on Exploring Service Science) series of international scientific conferences. His research has focused on the one hand on methods for the design and evolution of information systems, and on the other hand on the creation of database management systems in accordance with these methods.
They now focus on Service Science by adding the informational dimension.
Michel Léonard
9 782759 824670
978-2-7598-2467-0
Michel Léonard
Informational Lights of Service Science
for the progression of Society
Michel Léonard
ISBN(print): 978-2-7598-2467-0 – ISBN(ebook): 978-2-7598-2474-8 DOI: 10.1051/978-2-7598-2467-0
This book is published in under Open Access Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en/) allowing non-commercial use, distribu- tion, reproduction of the text, via any medium, provided the source is cited.
© Michel Léonard, 2020
Table of contents
Intention 7
Notes 13
Chapter 1 • Informational propulsion of Society 15 1.1 Classical approaches of the Digital World and the Societal World 16 1.1.1 Classical approach of the Digital World 16 1.1.2 Classical approach of the Societal World 17 1.1.3 Facing profound transformations induced by digital pushes 17
1.1.4 Risks of these approaches 18
1.2 Informational approach 20
1.2.1 Information World 21
1.2.2 Digital push of the Information World 23
1.2.3 Societal contra-push in the Information World 24 1.2.4 Societal push in the informational context 25
1.2.5 Informational propulsion of Society 26
1.2.6 Properties of the informational approach: a vast space
of explorations 29
1.3 Conclusion: towards information intelligence 30
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
Chapter 2 • Information service 33
2.1 Raison d’être of information services 33
2.2 Intention of an information service 34
2.3 Canvas of activities around an information service 35
2.3.1 Reference framework for contributors 35
2.3.2 Administration of an information service 36
2.3.3 Steering an information service 36
2.3.4 The history of a service 38
2.3.5 Synthesis of activities around an information service 38
2.3.6 Canvas of the information service 39
2.4 Complex information service 40
2.4.1 Basic principles of service composition 40 2.4.2 Types of alliance in a complex service 40 2.4.3 Extension of the definition of a service 44 2.4.4 Transforming a service into a complex service 46
2.5 Cognitive cohesion: cross-pollination space 46
2.6 Conclusion 48
Chapter 3 • Informational Commons 49
3.1 Emergence of information common goods in Society 50
3.2 Dilemma of information common goods 51
3.3 Emergence of informational commons 52
3.4 Contributory informational common 54
3.4.1 Classical position supplier-client 54
3.4.2 Position of the informational contribution 55 3.4.3 Towards the economy of information service 56
3.5 Conclusions 58
Chapter 4 • Administration of informational propulsion 61 4.1 Mission of the administration of the informational propulsion 62
4.1.1 General framework of the mission 62
4.1.2 Different missions 63
4.2 Place of Propulsion 64
4.2.1 Third Place for Service: concept 65
4.2.2 Third Place for Service: intention 65
4.2.3 Third Place for Service: value 66
4.2.4 Third Place for Service: contributory properties 66
4.2.5 Third Place for Service: organisation 67
Table of contents
4.2.6 Third Place for Service: conclusion 68
4.3 Informational Policy and Informational Authority 68
4.3.1 Informational policy 69
4.3.2 Conduct of an informational policy 73
4.3.3 Informational Policy: conclusion 77
4.4 Institutional instrument of informational propulsions: 4PS 77
4.4.1 Framework of 4PS 78
4.4.2 Overall intention of 4PS 81
4.4.3 4PS in Society 89
4.5 Administration of informational propulsions: conclusion 90
Chapter 5 • Intelligence of service 93
5.1 Introduction: the emergence of intelligence of service 93 5.1.1 Roles of the informational approach in the progression 94
5.1.2 Quantum part of a domain 94
5.1.3 Situation to overcome 95
5.1.4 Intention 95
5.1.5 Plan of the chapter 95
5.2 Expansion of a domain 95
5.2.1 Cognitive cohesion of contributors 96
5.2.2 Quantum knowledge of a domain 96
5.2.3 Context of the re-foundation of a domain 97 5.2.4 Situation of the foundations of a domain 98
5.2.5 Re-foundation of a domain 98
5.2.6 Importance of the re-foundation of a domain 100
5.3 Re-foundation of the domain of the Digital 101
5.3.1 Returning to the essence of the Digital 101 5.3.2 Reasons of the dominance of the Technology Digital Logic 102 5.3.3 Re-foundation of the Digital: Service Digital Logic 103 5.3.4 Predominant role of the Service Digital Logic 104
5.3.5 Re-positioning of TD-L 104
5.4 Quantum logic of organisation 105
5.4.1 Foundations of the quantum logic of organisation 105
5.4.2 Quantum steering committee 106
5.4.3 Organisation of quantum activities 106
5.4.4 Quantum logic and gravitational logic of organisation 107
5.5 Cognitive continuum in Service Science 108
5.6 Intelligence of service: conclusions 109
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
Chapter 6 • Response to initial intention 111
Acknowledgement 115
References 117
Intention
Everyone using digital systems has more efficient access to their informational space with the resultant benefit of a vast potential for inventiveness. The informational space consists of all the information indispensable for their activities and all the information provided by them.
The potential for inventiveness is revealed by beacons which illuminate the informational space. As it is throughout the scientific domain, such beacons of Enlightenment or Informational Lights may be seen only by those who know they are there and who know how to see them. For such people, these Informational Lights illuminate their inventive processes, allowing them to build activities, to forge new creations; to contribute to the progression of Society.
In order to let people, who are knowledgeable about Informational Lights, mani- fest their creative talents, Society needs to accept, facilitate and take seriously their inventive activities. Society should particularly realise their value and, therefore, their importance for the progression of Society.
The intention of this book is to bring out the vital role of the Informational Lights in the progression of Society.
1. Situations
This intention of this book is designed around four generic situations in order to introduce and present the challenges for the progression of Society.
The first situation concerns the vivid global interest in the intense creativity that digital technology has generated over the decades and which is reflected in a con- tinuous stream of digital innovations. Such innovations, made using digital sys- tems and technologies, play the role of the propulsors of Society and are part of
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
the progression of Society. They must be inserted into subsequent propulsions, in charge of exploring, designing and developing the profound transformations to be induced in all sectors of Society.
The second reference situation concerns the progressions of Society in the general sense, i.e. Society whose propulsors may not be digital. An example of such a situa- tion can be projects related to big infrastructures. As a result, it leads to the design and implementation of one or more propulsions. Generally, these propulsions require multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional or multinational competences and responsi- bilities, as well as the establishment of places of negotiation, design, regulation, arbi- tration. To be efficient and resilient, such propulsions of Society must incorporate propulsions, which were established thanks to the previous digital propulsors.
The third reference situation states that digital propulsors do not only have prag- matic impacts on Society by making their users more efficient in their activities.
They also have an impact on the intelligence of the situations encountered by Society: these situations have to be taken into account by actors who assume the responsibilities of creating, developing or managing propulsions thanks to digital propulsors. Their intelligence must meet the intelligence of the creators of digital propulsors. Precisely, Service Science enables the emergence of a world of infor- mation and knowledge with strong and mutual connections through a cognitive continuum, both with the world of activities and the digital world. This world has been updated according to all the works in engineering of information systems.
The fourth reference situation concerns the continual great influence of the clas- sical approach, which takes the Digital into account in the progression of Society (whereas this approach is already outdated as will be further shown in this book).
This classical approach considers the Digital to be able to solve problems that Society would or might have. These problems are described as visions leading to understand- able and ambitious goals. It explicitly drives the strategic level of Society to align its digital policy with the policy of its development. Tacitly, it aligns the operational activities, especially professional and/or business activities, with the chosen digital solution. For the classical approach, such alignments are indispensable for establish- ing a bridge over the gap between the world of activities of Society and the digital world. Thus, it is believed that the Digital of Society can be managed according to the standard management procedures, as for example, the implementation of master plans or projects with their opportunity assessments and returns on investment.
2. The challenge
The challenge of this book is to propose a new approach to the progression of Society, called the informational quantum approach. It is based on Service Science. According to this approach, at the centre of any progression of Society there are informational spaces, which are concretised in the form of information services, empowered by digital systems. Thus, Informational Lights become released
Intention
and can radiate the process of designing the progression of Society by having a central role in it. The quantum approach considers the progression of Society in multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, multinational spaces and takes into account all dimensions of the activities and all the domains of Society, such as engineering, organisational, institutional, economic, social, legal and regulatory aspects, as well as its public and private aspects.
This quantum approach considerably expands the domains of investigation of the progression of Society, in comparison with the classical approach. It allows Society to find liberation from the cognitive straitjacket, in which the classical approach chains it. This classical approach remains valid only in very limited situations.
This book presents the informational quantum approach and the foundations of its value in the context of the progression of Society.
1. This book begins by differentiating propulsions of propulsors in the context of the progression of Society. A propulsor can be a new law, a political or strategic will, a new technology like a digital system. The propulsions of Society integrate propulsors into the activities of Society in the form of information services. The intelligence of the propulsion is enriched by Service Science, having information as a central concept, known to all persons contributing to a propulsion.
In the heart of the strategy of any progression of Society is the strategy of various related propulsions, but not the strategy of propulsors.
2. This book describes the different facets of an information service. It presents the intent and the value proposition of a service. Throughout its construction process, they are refined to ultimately provide the sense of a service.
In its generality, an information service makes it possible to apprehend multi- disciplinary, multi-institutional, multinational situations of the progression of Society. They require contributions from persons of different disciplines and responsibilities to explore and build services together.
Service Science allows contributors of various disciplines to have a common language built on the information. In this way, it makes it possible for them to understand each other.
3. This book defines the foundations of functioning of the progression of Society, which integrates in its heart the digital potentialities using the informational quantum approach. It proposes the concept of information common goods, which are formed from information services, in order to establish bases of the progression of Society by means of information services. It highlights the risk of tragedy of the commons of information and advocates the organisation of infor- mation common goods in the form of informational commons, in order to avoid this risk of tragedy. This book therefore introduces the basics of a service economy.
4. This book explores the foundations of the administration of propulsions by taking into account informational commons. It provides a framework of the missions of this administration by returning to the fundamentals of a democratic Society. It adapts the motto of the French revolutionaries of 1789 – “Liberty,
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
Equality, Fraternity” – to the information services, so that they are in agreement with the type of society envisaged in this book and so that their constructors share the same cognitive unity. This book introduces contributory information services, which are democratic, responsible and inclusive.
By designing an information service, their builders help to emerge its sense. The cumulative sense of services, which form the progression, is reflected in the sense of the progression itself, making it more accessible to all actors.
This book explores the foundations of an information policy, so that the State could exercise its responsibilities in a public space considerably expanded by propulsions.
5. Finally, this book introduces several facets of the intelligence of services into the progression of Society.
The first concerns any scientific domain or any profession that must ensure a place for the logic of service, so that its specialists can take a consequent and indispensable role in propulsions. These are not simple additions to their corpus of knowledge. It is about a real reconstruction. This book proposes a generic approach.
Another facet concerns the multitude of activities that revolve around the services ensuring the progression of Society. This multitude of activities consists of real sym- phonies of activities that take into account the potential of services. Their manage- ment is unknown in the classical world of the administration of Society. This book explores their different forms based on the foundations of the logic of services.
Another facet is related to the intelligence of the artificial, which explores how the scopes of individual intelligence and collective intelligence – obviously human! – are expanded by immersing information services in activities and responsibilities.
Another facet focuses on professions and education, including the emergence of the profession of a service scientist.
The last presented facet concerns the intelligence of the emergence of the informa- tional quantum approach in Society, as well as the intelligence of explorations.
3. The issues for Society
The issues for Society of the informational quantum approach join those of the Enlightenment that Immanuel Kant (1784) presented in his title text: “Answering the Question What is Enlightenment?”. Although written in 1784, this text, once adapted to our time and the domain of this book, appears as a breaking news. This paragraph presents the first five points, the phrases in italic come from the text of Kant.
1. What are Informational Lights?
It is the emergence of a society from its informational and cognitive self-imposed immaturity by the classical approach. This immaturity comes from lack of
Intention
informational understanding, as well as resolve and courage to conceive tomorrow without guidance from another.
2. Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a proportion of societies, long after released from alien guidance, nonetheless gladly remain in lifelong infantile stage, by preferring to be colonised in the informational or cognitive context.
They explain how societies are so easily encapsulated by others in an informa- tional bubble.
It is so easy to remain infantile, within the classical approach.
With the superficialities well thought out, the doctrines and the visions of the classical approach which take place of informational understanding and give good conscience, one need not exert oneself to design at the informational level if only one can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work.
If the far greatest part of Societies’ regard taking the step to informational maturity as very dangerous, these are the guardians of the classical approach who have so benevolently taken over their supervision have carefully seen to it.
Now this danger is not actually so great, for after falling a few times they would in the end certainly learn to walk; but an example of this kind makes men timid and usually frightens them out of all further attempts.
3. Thus, it is difficult for any society to work itself out of the informational imma- turity that has all but become its normal nature. It has even become fond of this state and for the time being is actually incapable of using its own informational understanding, for no one has ever allowed it to attempt it. Doctrines in the form of algorithms, automation or black boxes of so-called “artificial intelligence”, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of natural informational talents, are the shackles of a permanent infantilisation.
The society which threw them off would still make only an uncertain leap of the classical approach over the smallest ditch, since it is unaccustomed to this kind of free movement. Consequently, only a few societies have succeeded, by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and pursuing a secure course.
4. But that the public should enlighten itself is more likely; indeed, if it is only allowed freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable. For even among the entrenched guard- ians of the great masses, a few persons will always think for themselves, a few who, after having themselves thrown off the yoke of infantilism, will spread the informa- tional spirit of a rational appreciation for both their own worth and for each person’s calling to think for himself.
This is one of the foundations of the informational quantum approach.
A public can only attain informational enlightenment slowly. Perhaps revolution can overthrow cognitive autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression of the supporters of the classical approach, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking of informational spaces. Instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
5. Nothing is required for this informational enlightenment, however, except freedom;
and the freedom in question is the least harmful of all, namely, the freedom to use reason publicly in all matters.
But on all sides: “Do not argue!” The informational executive says, “Do not argue, apply!” The manager says, “Do not argue, use!” The digital responsible says, “Do not argue, code!” The strategic responsible says, “Do not argue, buy!”
Where is the place in the world where they say: “Argue, explore and design as much as you want and about what you want!”)
Third Place for Service (TPS) introduced in this book will be precisely such places in the informational quantum approach.
4. Contribution of this book
The motto of the Informational Lights, which is inspired by the motto of Kant for the Enlightenment, is as follows: Have the courage to use your own informational understanding! Dare! Design!
The intention of this book is precisely to provide bold individuals and societies with a resilient scientific platform for tomorrow’s successful exploration.
Notes
The following main concepts used in this book are defined as follows.
Enterprise has its usual meaning: private or public enterprise, but also a more general meaning, considering any institution, organisation, association, company.
Society has its usual meaning, but also a more general meaning considering any State, Country, Region, Commune, Enterprise (as in the previous case).
Societal has its usual meaning: it focuses on the organisational and administrative aspects of the social life of individuals and enterprises with the meaning given above.
Digital is anything related to all the developed systems based on informatics, mix- tures of technologies and software: such as information technologies, Internet, Web, nanotechnology, mobile technologies, robots, agents, artificial intelligence in the strict meaning given in computer science.
Activity is always human.
Intelligence is always human, except in the term “artificial intelligence”, which des- ignates the Digital of a specific part of computer science.
Tomorrow has a special meaning. It designates what is possible to prepare, design or build now for the future and for the new generations. It is always related to innova- tion, creation, or progression.
Tomorrow is for the future, but is not the future.
Notably, by contrast with tomorrow, the future is the domain of foresight and fore- casts, or even oracles, wishes or visions.
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Informational propulsion
of Society
We are witnessing a huge push of the Digital in all areas of human activities. It reverses many practices and plunges all sectors of Society into deep questioning of their governance and even of their raison d’être. Thus, the macroeconomic sector is asking how to maintain full employment at a time when many reports announce the elimination of a large number of jobs due to the automation of tasks, which is induced by the massive deployment of the Digital. Should not the validity of the concept of “full employment” be revised in our times of the Digital?
The classical models of the challenges and effects of the Digital on Society are based on strategies fogged by fascinating visions, which have been raising expectations of immediate, almost infantile satisfaction of the usages that became possible thanks to the Digital. However, such frameworks have become obsolete to implement respon- sible strategies, due to the enormous push of the Digital.
Now it is the time to deploy both the Digital World together with explicit con- science of its societal environment and the Societal World together with a con- science responsible for its digital environment. This is the time of the Information World.
In the world of information, societal and digital responsibilities intermingle con- sciously and explicitly. It now becomes obvious that a common base is required that would allow comprehension between societal responsibilities and digital responsi- bilities. Moreover, it now seems to be inevitable that deeper explorations are neces- sary to deal with critical situations of questioning and analysing societal processes
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
and to (re-)construct societal foundations. Indeed, these are not only the practices that the Information World seeks to reexamine in depth. It is more than anything the way of observing Society. The Information World encourages us to return to the foundations.
By taking into consideration the issues of a democratic Society, the approach sug- gested in this book shares the spirit of the Enlightenment. It offers to the parties involved in the refoundation processes to become real contributors to the extent of their talents, in a context where each one proves their critical thinking. They will require a common cognitive base to appreciate the contributions of others and to be pertinent, in order to co-construct the practices that should be consequently exercised through digital means. It is the purpose of this chapter to present such a base: the informational base.
1.1 Classical approaches of the Digital World and the Societal World
The Digital pushes significantly change existing practices by making them more effi- cient and more reliable, for example by automating administrative tasks. Moreover, they induce new practices, which extend the scope of social cohesion, in particular their legislative or regulatory aspects. Such situations become even more numerous under the unstoppable flood of digital pushes. This leads to profound transforma- tions of enterprises, not only from the point of view of their organisation and their decision-making processes, but also by re-thinking their reasons for being, their principles of management, their rules and regulations, and even laws at the level of the whole Society. How will the Digital World and the Societal World face these new challenges?
1.1.1 Classical approach of the Digital World
The classical approach of the Digital World consists in continuously offering new digital pushes, in form of systems consisting of a mixture of technologies and soft- ware. It reveals a technical complexity that perhaps has no equivalent in any other engineering sector. However, beyond the purely technical aspects, this approach also asks a question regarding the future of the Digital in Society. It is thus essential to make a meeting in Society where a created system must be so useful for Society, that it will immediately assimilate this system. Moreover, such a meeting should allow and invite new generation of digital pushes, which would create new digital pushes, and so on.
If it is observed from inside the Digital, the development of the Information World might seem independent of Society. It is constructed brick by brick with high
1. Informational propulsion of Society
cognitive continuity enlightened with occasional breakthroughs. It is a continuous work of exploration, both meticulous and technical.
Yet, one should also take in consideration the social utility, promised at such meet- ings. Indeed, it is this utility that creates the legitimacy of the Digital for Society.
Since this utility is only a potential, as it is not positioned as a prototype or a prod- uct, it is the task for digital demiurges to show evidence and even its inevitable effect for the progression of Society. This is how the Digital sells this utility for Society, in order to obtain budget for its development projects. Society, in its turn, buys it for its strategic reasons.
1.1.2 Classical approach of the Societal World
The classical approach of the Societal World only acknowledges digital pushes and their effects. It fumbles in its societal implementations. It tries to avoid its difficul- ties and responsibilities by sharing the visions of digital demiurges. The classical approach of the Societal World highlights the ethical aspects by denouncing digital- based consequences of any and all kinds. Such consequences include for example – those concerning the protection of the private sphere and effects on production line work by automation of cognitively coercive tasks. This classical approach denounces such serious consequences such as job losses because of the Digital; it denounces the loss of status, the general feeling of people that they are being superseded in the ability to meet their responsibilities and their concerns about the sustainability of employment.
This classical approach highly encourages one to challenge these issues. It attempts to legislate for this but is aware of the fragility of its proposals. Major digital pro- jects are launched without their sustainability in value creation being ensured. This approach will always surrender to digital pushes and react to them while there is a general feeling that it always suffers from being unable to guide digital pushes.
1.1.3 Facing profound transformations induced by digital pushes
Even if it actually faces profound transformations induced by digital pushes in Society, the classical approach of the Digital does not feel concerned by them for at least three reasons:
– for each digital push, the digital approach also provides a system, the useful- ness of which is perceived by Society as obvious, sometimes even inevitable.
This approach is not concerned in implementation of this utility for Society. It does not want to get involved in proving this utility, but only observes it and improves its offer;
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
– each ICT push is considered as independent from other ICT pushes. Thus, from its viewpoint, the Internet is just a network of computers which communicate with one another. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the Societal World, the Internet has a global perspective that connected computers are located worldwide. As far as the Digital is concerned, this fact is nothing else than just an opportunity to address and solve exciting problems, such as reliability, secu- rity and performance;
– digital works are of a technical nature and strive to find the most optimal solu- tion. Since the most optimal solution for a problem represents a significant con- tribution to Society, the Digital considers that its social mission is accomplished.
Facing the same profound transformations, the classical approach of the Societal World does not have a sufficient background to integrate them as part of the poli- tics of the progression of Society. It is helpless to evaluate what exactly is right and sustainable in transformations induced by digital pushes. The obvious visions of utility, which are presented by the Digital, can not serve it to develop a consistent position at the level of Society.
It feels constantly disempowered to deal with the continuous digital pushes.
This approach can only note which habits and practices have been installed in Society by using a digital system. If – at some point – it realises that some of its usages are contrary to the public interest, it must oppose them by using principles transcribed as laws, regulations or rules. In the Digital, however, it faces two forces:
the force of accomplished facts of those habits and the force typical to the Digital, the digital pervasiveness, which was introduced by Lawrence Lessig (2000) in a magisterial way in the context of cyberspace.
And here is an example to illustrate this. Briefly, if Society, through its managers, wants to counter the effects of a digital system perceived as harmful, it must impose rules not only on citizens, but also on the Digital itself. It must require the Digital to integrate them in their digital systems. The stakes are high: if the rules are embed- ded in the systems, they can not be transgressed. However, in order to embed the rules into the system, the Digital must transform them into digital rules – which are not always possible – because they are the ones that will be programmed in the system, to ensure their validation. To do this, it will be necessary to change the code of the system, sometimes very significantly, – and this can even be unrealisable, unless it is completely redone by scratch. So no wonder the ICT decision-making persons are not very enthusiastic. They can take delaying positions, knowing that the strength of accomplished facts plays in their favour to bury these rules.
1.1.4 Risks of these approaches
These approaches, which are taken by the Digital World and the Societal World, are foreign to one another. They are walled in mutual indifference. Yet, it is crucial for the progression of Society to overcome this obstacle.
1. Informational propulsion of Society
1.1.4.1 Dominant attitudes
In both worlds, these approaches promote dominant, accepted as a reference, atti- tudes of the following types:
– to ignore the importance of the Digital in social development, by limiting the vision of the Digital to a simple tool, oriented to humans, of course;
– to consider the rising role of the Digital as a secondary factor of progression: it does not actually create wealth, it only automates processes;
– to consider the rising role of the Digital as a simple place of power where it seems enough to have fascinating digital visions and promises for Society, to be well able to speak about them, without being concerned with complex chal- lenges to overcome, their impacts on Society, on its sustainability and employ- ment politics, as well as on its real added value;
– to adopt the infantile attitude of consuming the Digital, of searching one’s needs to be simply satisfied or even to expect oneself to be continuously amazed by the Digital.
These attitudes can be found in all sectors of Society. They contribute to lead the whole Society to potential failures of understanding, losing basic notions and mean- ings, lacking in sense, becoming profoundly destabilised by digital pushes, which are otherwise noted with fascination, having its members demobilised individually and collectively, by feeling outdated and afraid of being swept away by a cognitive tsunami.
1.1.4.2 Cracks in the wall of indifference
In its own development, the Digital confronts the need of a dialogue with the Societal World and does communicate with it in a very specific context. Some time ago, it was considered that its customers were nothing other than simple users of its systems. Thus, it was easy for the Digital to stand aside from occasional vulnerabili- ties of its systems that could even cause significant damages to customers: customers were obliged to sign a contract in which it was stipulated that the digital providers were exempt from any liability for errors caused by their systems!
Nowadays, however, the Digital puts its users in situations where other people, who initially have no commitment with it, are concerned by the use of its systems. These situations can be critical in the event of incidents or accidents: for example, when such situations are caused by a drone, an automatically driven car, a surgeon-robot, etc. These situations are so new, that they have not yet been the subject of laws, regulations or rules. Thus, because of its digital pushes, the Digital clashes with its own social non-legitimacy. Now it requires its own legal protection and – subse- quently – its own political recognition that its ICT advances are of the public. It can only obtain the above by cooperating with the world of Society, which is the only legitimate instance to legislate it.
The Societal World must be prepared to assume this responsibility on behalf of the public interest. Before any negotiations, two important things should be considered.
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From one side, the Digital knows the future towards which it is leading. From another side, it is absolutely impossible to determine the entire multitude of social and societal situations induced by digital pushes. Therefore, the Societal World must retain the option to change the laws or regulations in response to changing situations that arise from usages and – if necessary – to impose them afterwards on the Digital.
1.1.4.3 Enlightenment
These approaches of digital pushes do not significantly consider a multitude of sig- nals following opening of new businesses created thanks to the Digital, as well as new forms of interactions, exchanges, sharing, transactions, collaborations, co-designs, co-innovation between different individuals or legal entities in all sectors. Yet, there is an increasing number of people who are enthusiastically involved in them.
The same is true for many information systems in enterprises: the Digital seized them for budget reasons but it considered that it was only the application of the Digital. It wanted to impose its ways of doing, by transforming an information sys- tem into a solution! But it is a deadlock! However, there are certain information sys- tems which are truly successful: their decision-making persons both from the digital side and the management side have successfully dissolved this wall of indifference.
For classical approaches of digital pushes, all these Enlightenment beacons are the result of the invisible hand and are therefore insignificant for the progression of Society. In fact, they are very fragile; their sustainability is not ensured whilst they construct the continuity of Society by endogenising the Digital. This invisible hand that has illuminated all these successes actually hides the great intelligence in the social digital engagement of talented people. Their success was without the volun- tary knowledge of classical worlds: the Societal World and the Digital World.
1.1.4.4 Conclusion
These classical approaches of the Societal World and the Digital World have built a wall of indifference between them: they communicate only through visions, budg- ets and relations of power. Very often, they even appear as antagonists. This was a response to initial pushes of informatics in Society. Given the importance gained by the Digital in the progression of Society and in the face of even more digital discov- eries, this response can no longer assume a consequent social development without deeply re-questioning it. This is the time to make visible this invisible hand!
1.2 Informational approach
These digital pushes have impacts on societal practices and, consequently, on the progression of Society. They arise in a dispersed manner, in different areas of Society.
They appear in a disruptive manner, with soft impacts on Society.
1. Informational propulsion of Society
Given the risks and challenges, Society needs to transform these ICT pushes into real digital propulsions for the progression of Society. It is necessary that people with responsibility in the Societal World and the Digital World intermingle. It is indispensable to have an approach that recognizes this intermingling at its very heart, unlike previous classical approaches.
1.2.1 Information World
The specialists of the Societal World and the Digital World must collaborate to take on consequent responsibilities related to propulsion. However, these worlds have very different spaces of knowledge and methods of reasoning, as well as their challenges in the context of Society. It is nevertheless impossible to ask specialists from one of the two worlds to become specialists in the other, like for example ask managers to become IT specialists, or the other way around. By taking into account the challenges of Society, it is impossible to acrobatically juggle on the bridge over the gap that exists between these two worlds.
In fact, between these two worlds, there is the world of Information: it is a world of knowledge with its own knowledge and methods, unknown in the World of Society and the Digital World. It is focused on information. This concept of information is certainly shared by both worlds, but both typically only use it, without really paying attention to it. Moreover, the concept of information as such is not taught in most management and computer science programs. This concept has been highlighted as the conceptual model by researchers in engineering of information systems. Their research is published notably in the scientific conferences, such as INFORSID1 for French-speaking scientific audience and CAiSE2 at the international level.
The proposed informational approach makes the concepts of the Information world more visible, essential and inevitable. It considers that, in the context of the Information world, important decisions related to technological pushes regarding the propulsion of Society must be made. According to the informational approach, the Information World does not only serve as intermediary between the World of Society and the Digital World. The information takes the key role at the heart of development of multiple propulsions and provides their informational base. This informational base consists of a multitude of information models in the precise language of the Information World, all oriented towards the design and implemen- tation of propulsions.
This informational approach proposes to build information services from its infor- mational base. The builders of information services should be aware of the exist- ence of the informational enlightenment introduced in the intention of this book and presented throughout the book. These builders must be inventive and critical.
1. http:// www.inforsid.fr.
2. https://www.caise19.it/.
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
This informational base imports the knowledge, which is described in informa- tional terms coming from all the domains concerned by the information service, in particular, from the Digital. This knowledge is essential for the designers of the informational base, so that their decisions regarding the informational base can be accurately passed on by the people responsible for the digital implementation and by the people responsible on the organisational level, who are in charge of activities that will be undertaken through information services. This knowledge is imported into the informational base according to the principles described below. The infor- mational base is thus composed of four parts:
– the digital informational kernel. It includes all the knowledge of digital pos- sibilities and difficulties, in particular those relating to the security of access to information, to the evolution of the informational base. This knowledge is the basis of informational models. For example, the conceptual models used in information systems come from the schema models used in technologies related to database management systems;
– the societal informational kernel. It contains essential knowledge to determine the activities and responsibilities induced by the information service, as well as the necessary skills and the principles of their organisation. It contains the model of activities and the related economical model, as well as the exhaustive list of activities and contributors;
– the informational regulatory kernel. It concerns generic knowledge, such as sci- entific and technical knowledge, standards, laws and regulations;
– the informational kernel. It concerns all informational models. It is in the infor- mational kernel where all the knowledge is combined, in order to construct informational base.
The informational base is represented in the figure 1.1. by the yellow ellipse. The societal part is represented by the red ellipse, whilst the digital and the regulatory parts are depicted as blue and grey ellipses correspondingly. The other ellipses are related to the more general context of Societal, Digital, Regulatory and Society.
Digital World Societal
World
Informational base digital societal
Society
Regulatory World regulatory
Figure 1.1. Informational base.
1. Informational propulsion of Society
The informational base is the steering place of the entire informational infrastruc- ture, which has been developed to support an information service. This informa- tional infrastructure includes of course the informational base, as well as all the digital and organisational implementations that have been put in place, in order to make operational this information service.
1.2.2 Digital push of the Information World
The Digital is always oriented towards the future. It only proposes rendezvous in the future to both enterprises and individuals by creating new digital technologies;
the fact that both enterprises and individuals are present at these rendezvous by buy- ing them, ensures the expansion of the Digital in all sectors of activities. It pushes the Societal World to also become oriented towards tomorrow, by putting the soci- etal innovation in the centre of its missions and by being involved in innovation processes, in order to create, in its turn, new meetings in the future.
The consistent future of the Society with the Digital is not a hypothetical future. It is built very precisely, with an attention to informational detail, which does not really have an equivalent in the Societal World with such a wide extent. This special future is called tomorrow in this book. This is the informational construction that leads to a digital implementation: everything must be detailed, since, of course, no invisible hand can repair conceptual errors or approximations. It requires the underlying rigour of digital technologies. The Information World will push the Societal World to comply with this informational rigour: no mistake can be made, no vagueness is permitted.
This is the world of the informational design which builds informational models.
The Information World uses the informational models entangled with each other to construct digital implementations. It pushes the Societal Information World to apprehend them, to participate in their construction, to make decisions in the choices of informational models, which all have their implication on the opportuni- ties for actors working with the future system. It pushes the Societal World to enter into the world of informational models, where little by little meetings offered to tomorrow actors of the system are being formed. In order to overcome many dif- ficulties, the methods of exploration of situations are required, which would allow to subdue their complexity by designing informational models.
In order to be efficient, the Information World requires that the phases of creative tension of design and implementation have to be protected, because they can last forever, given the amount of information that explorators must manage. In particu- lar, the Information World pushes to avoid any undue delay in the decisions that are imperative for the development of the information service.
The Information World also pushes the Societal World to adopt a management approach, which gives a central place to the informational innovation. It also should take into account that the success of an information service requires many people to be involved into the process of design and implementation. The situations to overcome
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are so diverse and numerous. All the details have an important, sometimes even crucial, role. It is thus impossible that only one person controls or manages the entire process.
The Information World can not be embedded in the objectives, to which they should provide solutions. These meetings, which it sets tomorrow for individuals or enter- prises, are expressed in terms of openness to discover the need in terms of creation and consolidation of activities. The Digital Information World pushes the Societal Information World to explore digital pushes and not to consume them. In addition, it pushes the Societal Information World to consider every informational implementa- tion as still in the process of development and not as an end in itself or a final solution.
1.2.3 Societal contra-push in the Information World
In the context of the Information World, the digital push in the Societal World generates a societal contra-push in the Digital World. It might take multiple forms.
Facing the digital pushes, the Societal Information World has the responsibility vis- à-vis Society, to manage and direct the evolution of information services or services that are supported in particular by the systems of these pushes. So, it pushes the Digital to provide it with the knowledge necessary to assume these responsibilities.
It also pushes it to provide interoperable systems, since the information, even if it is taken into account by different digital systems, nevertheless belongs to the same information service.
The Societal Information World pushes the Digital to provide evolutive systems that would enable it to carry out the necessary evolutions of the information service in response to continual explorations and continual adjustments to the evolution of the environment.
While, a digital push is primarily concerned with its system and its usefulness, par- ticularly the satisfaction of generic users, the Societal Information World considers people who exercise their activities in the form of responsibilities or tasks. These are the actors. The responsibility of the Societal Information World lies in ensuring that they continue to exercise their activities within the information service effi- ciently. The situations intrinsic to their activities must be found in the information service available to them. It pushes the Information World to reason in terms of situations and to explore, design, achieve, evolve the interfaces between the actors and the information services.
Faced with a given situation, these actors need to have confidence in the infor- mation obtained from the system by having access to its source and evaluating its relevance. They need to have confidence that the information service faithfully reflects their actions. The Societal Information World pushes the Digital to be able to enrich all information with its provenance and its relevance, and to enrich each and every operation with the circumstances of its processing and with its effects.
While the Digital normally considers users to be isolated from each other in their intentions, the Societal Information World, on the contrary, takes into account the
1. Informational propulsion of Society
actors as participating in a collective activity to which everyone contributes. They share activities and information with people in the same enterprise or other enter- prises. They need to have confidence in their knowledge of how exactly the other actors execute their activities through this information service. Thus, access opera- tions offered by the Digital are not sufficient for the Societal Information World.
It pushes the Digital to introduce the concept of the informational space for each actor: a list of different types of information and information treatments to which an actor has an access. Since actors are not isolated from each other, the informa- tional space of an actor has a non-empty intersection with the informational spaces of several other actors. These informational overlaps should be viewed as objects of protocols governing the activities of each actor, in order to ensure consistency of the collective activity in which all these actors participate. In this way, the Societal Information World pushes the Digital to enable the implementation of these proto- cols of informational overlaps.
The Digital provides generic means of security at the level of each of its systems.
The Societal Information World pushes the Digital to consider the level of infor- mational security based on the relevant informational spaces. As the informational space of one actor can be supported by several systems, it also pushes the Digital to consider that informational security should be defined by multiple systems.
The Digital makes available generic consistency rules which it inherently validates.
The Societal Information World has the responsibility of the regulatory kernel of the information service. It is composed of management rules of an enterprise, rules regarding the overlap protocols, norms, societal rules, various regulations and legislations. It has the responsibility to ensure compliance of information services with all these rules. Not all of them can be implemented in an information service.
Therefore, their validation becomes the responsibility of actors. For other rules, the Societal Information World should develop their implementation within the system, as well as it should ensure a possibility for eventual modifications. It pushes the Digital to develop a real regulatory space allowing, on the one hand, to imple- ment all these integrity rules and, on the other hand, to facilitate the evolution of their implementation in response of the evolution of the regulatory rules, in order to maintain compliance of these information services.
Finally, the Societal Information World pushes the establishment of methods of development and management of information services. These methods take into account not only digital pushes, but also the regulatory space, situations, evolu- tions and explorations, and deviate from linear methods, which start from goals to get solutions, which are practiced in the context of the indifference between the Societal World and the Digital World (§ 1.1.4.1).
1.2.4 Societal push in the informational context
Society continually faces common situations and emerging situations. The answers to common situations are objects of standards and references that allow
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implementation and monitoring of societal operational practices, and would use these standards to respond to common situations. In contrast, emerging situations come from the aspirations of their members, unexpected events of all kinds, com- plexities, which have never been met before, information and relevant knowledge, which have not been accessible previously. There is no reference of societal practices to deal with them. Persons with responsibility often find themselves in the situa- tions when their decision making would have consequent impacts on the future of Society, such as launching a legislative process.
All these situations lead to implement societal processes. The Digital has proven, however, that it can increase the efficiency of its own implementation. In this way, the classical approach advocates making decisions in the Societal World, without worrying about the Digital, and then turn to the Digital, in order to seek solution there. If one manages to destroy the wall of indifference between these two worlds, one would give an opportunity for the digital contra-push to take place, especially in emerging situations. Thus, instead of placing persons with responsibilities into risky situations to take important decisions, it puts them in position to lead a pro- cess of exploration, focusing on each step to implement societal processes, which are enriched thanks to the Digital. For this approach, it is necessary to establish the following chain of responsibilities:
Society ⇔ Societal ⇔ Information ⇔ Digital.
An example of such an approach is restructuring of an enterprise. Instead of plan- ning restructuring an enterprise without taking into consideration all information services, which are already implemented in this enterprise, an exploratory approach (Opprecht and Léonard, 2014; Ralyté et al., 2016) considers their conceptual models and suggests how the conceptual models should evolve according to each step of the exploration of restructuring. In the exploratory approach, persons with responsibility are much closer to immediate impacts of restructuring and have more opportunities to refine their restructuring decisions in real time.
Another example is provided in the book of Fred Turner (2006), which presents the entanglement of aspirations in the Societal World and the Digital World. This entanglement is based on “the first key of the digital utopia”, where the information has a central role for everything. When these two worlds intermingle, pushes and contra-pushes come in fusion to propel Society.
1.2.5 Informational propulsion of Society
Fred Turner describes the connivance of social and digital aspirations. They are intertwined to form meetings between actors of Society, and digital creators. The social aspirations of the actors of Society come in line with the digital aspirations of digital creators. The actors of Society seem to give sense to digital creativity; digital
1. Informational propulsion of Society
creators seem to make actors’ aspirations concrete and realisable. Their intermin- gling starts playing the role of propulsion for the development of the Californian society.
The Information World has different amplitude. It does not only have its interest in digital enterprises. It focuses on Society in all its complexity and all its compo- nents. The Information World also suggests to intermingle the Societal World and the Digital World, but its purpose is to form informational propulsion in the very heart of Society.
1.2.5.1 The force of the Information World
The force of the Information World is to provide a framework helping to entangle digital pushes and social pushes. It is based on information and design. Information plays a central role. In the Digital, it describes anything that can be put in a binary form. In the Societal World, it holds an obvious essential place among all actors.
It is in the centre of the Societal, in particular when it transcribes social aspiration at the societal level. The Information World gives it many forms: data, knowledge, information, rule, procedure, communication, as well as processes that allow estab- lishing precise digital and societal designs.
The Information World channels the force typical to the Digital, which was previ- ously presented (§ 1.1.3), by mastering informational models, which make it pos- sible to take the measure of this force on the Societal World. Once embedded in one or more digital systems, design models define the code3 which would induce domi- nant effects on the Societal World. Since this code has significant effects on Society, it is desirable to place its conception in a democratic context. The Information World allows it: by allowing the co-design and co-responsibility of the models at the informational level, it allows to establish coherent debates between actors of the Digital Information World and the Societal Information World, based on the accuracy of the informational models regarding the Societal World.
Thus, the Information World contributes to the legitimacy of information services supporting societal activities. This legitimacy has two facets:
– the first one, “true”, concerns digital implementations of informational models from the point of view of its engineering dimensions, such as reliability, perfor- mance and security;
– the second one, “right”, concerns societal implementations based on informa- tional models in their organisational, managerial and efficiency dimensions to enable the actors to face the situations, which they encounter within the frame- work of their activities, within the framework of the corresponding laws, rules, norms, ethical codes, etc.
3. In reference to the article “Code is Law” previously cited (Lessig, 2000).
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Informational Lights of Service Science for the progression of Society
1.2.5.2 A vast space of innovations
The Information World provides a vast space for informational innovations, since it concerns all sectors of Society. These innovations relate to all levels of Society, the strategic and tactical levels, the operational level and the level of regulations.
Such innovations can not be only to descendant or ascendant, they can not be only reserved for experts to innovate, and they can not be reduced to a single domain, unless they hinder the progression of Society. Coming from everywhere, innova- tions are multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, and sometimes multi-national. All of them have an important obligation: to create value, manage information services, which are both true and right, and to support the societal changes they induce.
Everyone who is involved in the co-creation of information services is also involved in co-creation of informational models. However, by doing so, people are required to search for the sense of the information service. They may even find several senses.
They detail and concretise the sense during the progress of works of co-creation, and then share it with more people, even outside of the co-creation team. Each of co-creators has the sense of contributing to the progression of Society.
1.2.5.3 Risks of exclusion
The other side of this vast space for informational innovations is the risk of informa- tional exclusion: i.e. the inability of a person to capture one of these senses and con- nect to it. Such a person finds herself completely disoriented with this information service and has no cognitive references to ensure her responsibilities. This can lead a person to a panic situation. This informational exclusion is even deeper than digital exclusion, which concerns the impossibility to access the Digital or the impossibility to comprehend the principles of its usages.
There is even a more insidious and extensive form than informational exclusion on the level of Society. It is the informational exclusion of potential creators who are being robbed of informational innovation by others (probably more influential persons) that have the power to impose their solutions.
The persons with responsibility who do not understand the importance of the Information World in the progression of Society do not have an argument against it. They simply are not aware that if one reduces informational innovation to sim- ple digital innovation, one can not take into consideration the societal innovation, which has an outstanding importance for the progression of their Society and is characterised by an important added value, including the economic one. They are not aware that the “solution” constructed in this way is built in a societal context of a different Society, thus such a “solution” just implicitly introduces this societal context in their Society.
The fight against informational exclusion is very difficult. It is the informational approach that enables to highlight it and helps to overcome it by creating informa- tional commons.
1. Informational propulsion of Society
1.2.5.4 Information common goods
This situation closely resembles the so called “tragedy of the commons” (Hardin, 1968) in the context of the management of natural common goods, such as fisheries, forests, water sources. In this domain, the valuable research by Elinor Ostrom (1990) earned her the Nobel Prize in economics in 2009. It is important to build, nurture and contin- uously enrich the information common goods. Given the multitude of informational resources to inventory, their management can only be done through the contributory management, where each contributor should feel recognised both economically and socially. These information common goods create the base of all the digital economy.
1.2.5.5 From cognitive disruption to cognitive continuity
Under the leadership of the Information World, Society is expanding. It introduces a dimension of innovation that is related to a wide range of actors, not just research- ers and R&D departments of enterprises as in the case of product innovation.
This Information World takes into account in an explicit way both common situa- tions and emerging situations. The first ones, even if they are faced with unforeseen circumstances, nevertheless remain in a known conceptual framework, certainly being a subject to continuous improvements. The conceptual framework of the second ones is either incomplete, or unknown, or both. In this case, a process of exploration is initially required.
Obviously, the Information World takes into account the common situations, how- ever, it is best known for taking into consideration these emerging situations. For people who are engaged in co-creation of a new information service, such situations seem to be disruptive. Not only do they seem to be disruptive – they are actually dis- ruptive. However, in the societal framework and consequently in the social frame- work, it is essential that these situations reach sufficient maturity to be presented as a continuity, particularly to avoid informational exclusions. This is the responsibil- ity of the Societal Information World to ensure this continuity, definitely not just through simple communication such as marketing on presenting a new product, but based on the sense, which served as a keystone for co-creators.
The Information World must thus manage concomitance of activities, facing both common and emerging situations. And whilst the management and economics of common situations give the impression of being well known, the management and economics of emerging situations still remain to be explored, especially to discover new activities allowing value creation and their implementation in Society.
1.2.6 Properties of the informational approach:
a vast space of explorations
In conclusion, the Information World allows maintaining a coherent conversation between the Societal World and the Digital World. It does not have a simple role of
